For those of you who don’t know already, NOUVELLE VAGUE is a French band whose name means “new wave” in their native language. Fittingly, they cover punk and new wave tunes from the late ‘70s to the mid ‘80s. However, they do it with a twist. The songs are stripped of their anger, angst and passion, and are instead transformed into bossa-nova ditties. On paper, it sounds like it could be a complete disaster, but Nouvelle Vague pull it off. Although they’re essentially a one-trick pony, and I don’t know how much longer they can keep releasing albums in the same style (they’re on their second), they’re also incredibly entertaining, especially if you know and love the original versions and you don’t take them too seriously.
Don’t get me wrong here. A large part of my interest in Nouvelle Vague has to do with the fact that their songbook consists of the music that’s been the soundtrack of my life. Songs like “Teenage Kicks” (THE UNDERTONES), “Making Plans for Nigel” (XTC), “The Killing Moon” (ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN) and “Ever Fallen in Love” (BUZZCOCKS), just to name a few, are some of the best records ever made. However, I don’t think that they’re beyond reinterpretation, even if it means having two French girls cooing the lyrics to “Making Plans for Nigel” while another one blows bubbles, as they did on this evening.
So what makes them interesting? While they admittedly have great source material, Nouvelle Vague’s versions retain their own identity. Producers OLIVER LIBAUX and MARC COLLIN initially hired French and Portuguese singers who were unfamiliar with the songs to make sure that the songs got a different feel from the original. And suffice it to say, when you hear their ultra-cool version of the DEAD KENNEDYS classic “Too Drunk to F***”, you won’t even recognize the song until you can make out the lyrics. The song that worked the least was “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” (BAUHAUS) because it was the most similar to the original, but nothing misfired completely. I’m not sure how many of these songs the crowd was familiar with or if they even realized that all of them were covers, but they seemed to enjoy it as well, which means that Nouvelle Vague are equally successful with those unfamiliar with the material. While there’s a large element of novelty to what they do, they’re at least enjoyable.
A male and female duo consisting of JACK DRAG and BLAKE HAZARD, respectively, THE SUBMARINES started off the evening with a delicate, beautiful rendition of GALAXIE 500’s “Tugboat” and played a nice, 45-minute set of dream-pop that was not too dissimilar to the lazy, hazy Galaxie 500 sound.
